The process of upgrading to a newer version of windows server can vary greatly depending on which operating system you are starting with and the pathway you take.
Windows storage server 2008 upgrade path.
For on premises servers there is no direct upgrade path from windows server 2008 r2 to windows server 2016 or later.
If you want to keep the same hardware and all the server roles you ve already set up without flattening the server you ll want to do an in place upgrade.
Cluster os rolling upgrade.
Notes unless otherwise specified all skus that are included in this article are x86 and x64 versions.
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Customer will need to upgrade their windows server 2008 and windows server 2008 r2 to a newer version of windows server or migrate these servers to microsoft azure and get three years of extended security support for free which will give you more time to upgrade your servers redeploy your.
Overview of windows server upgrades.
In azure you ll stay compliant become more secure and add cloud.
Upgrade windows server 2008 r2 to windows server 2012 r2.
An in place upgrade allows you to go from an older operating system to a newer one.
The following table outlines the supported upgrade paths that are available to upgrade to windows server 2008 storage keeping units skus.
For step by step guidance on upgrading review the windows server upgrade content.
As you are planning your upgrade be aware of the following guidelines for the middle step of upgrading to windows server 2012 r2.
The path may not be the most appropriate for some uses cases as it involves several upgrades and not just a single server 2008 r2 to server 2019 upgrade.
Also provides upgrade considerations for server core installations of windows server 2008.
See upgrade paths for windows server 2008 for more information about your on premises upgrade options.
Cluster os rolling upgrade enables an administrator to upgrade the operating system of the cluster nodes from windows server 2012 r2 and windows server 2016 without stopping the hyper v or the scale out file server workloads.
As you know the windows server 2008 and windows server 2008 r2 are out of support on january 14th 2020.
You can migrate your on premises windows server 2008 and windows server 2008 r2 servers to azure where you can continue to run them on virtual machines.
Instead upgrade first to windows server 2012 r2 and then upgrade to windows server 2016.